Faringdon Meeting

23rd October @ 10:00 - 12:00

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Prior to forming Opera Anywhere with his wife Vanessa, Mike had a corporate life, working within the IT industry as channel partner and alliance manager for software companies, Lotus Development, IBM and SOPHOS.

Whilst at Lotus Mike formed partnerships with other ‘competitors’ in order to compete against the mighty Microsoft. He developed a strategy for the UK business that was to become standard practice in European markets and eventually in the US.

By developing trusting relationships, building mutually rewarding and complimentary complete solutions, incorporating some of his competitors products directed at specific markets he was able to win business in the PC software consumer market where Lotus were traditionally weak and Microsoft dominant.

Working in partnership with competing vendors though was difficult at times, there was a great deal of suspicion and a considerable amount of internal resistance to the idea and certainly in the early days many obstacles to overcome.

Moving into a completely different industry such as the arts seemed to be very different and on the face of it much more collaborative and easy going. However, there are still competing influences that threaten to undermine the opera company’s goals and objectives.

In Mike’s talk he will cover the benefits of working together with other organisations to provide a better customer solution. He will explore the if, when and how to take on a competitor head on, choosing the right battles and knowing when to cut one’s losses!

Mike Woodward, Opera Anywhere

From humble beginnings, I had been working my socks off, striving to make my way up the sales career ladder. Reaching a peak in 1999 whilst working with Lotus Development I found myself attending a Stephen Covey training course, an in-depth study of ‘The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People’. I had only got to the 2nd habit, ‘Begin With The End In Mind’, when I realised I was never ever going to be satisfied with the constant struggle to follow my previously chosen materialistic based lifestyle.

I could not have imagined in my wildest dreams that I would take to the stage and form an opera company!